US airlines to offer free Facebook access

As of February, seven major North American airlines will offer free access to the social networking site Facebook, as part of promotion with Gogo Inflight Internet.

This means that now you’ll be able to come up with clever statuses mid-flight. Furthermore, you can tend to your virtual farm even en route to a vacation. After all, we haven't been evolving all this time to let our agriculture suffer, have we?

Note however that Facebook is the only feature that is actually free, as access to other site is charged - $4.95 for a short flight or $12.95 for a longer one. The service will be offered by Virgin America, United Airlines, American Airlines, Delta, AirTran, US Airways and Alaska Airlines, but only on North American flights.

Security and nosy passengers aside, we’re fine with it as long as that yapping douche in the NFL chat group isn’t the pilot. (I'm not sure airline pilots can afford PCs on their salaries anymore. sub.ed.)